Thursday, September 30, 2010

The putative end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq is as good an excuse as any to wind down this blog that was a small byproduct of that war.

For a variety of reasons . . . I’m declaring victory and calling an end to combative operations . . .

I know the guy who helped Jules get that embed gig, I helped them get in touch as a matter of fact. That was before the blogging phenomena really took off - for me at least. Now Jules goes the way of other friends of Blog STORMBRINGER. The funny thing is I never really associated Jule's blog singularly with the war and I never thought in a million years he'd align himself with the regime's purely political announcement end of combat operations.

My take on it is Jules is suffering from Post-Blogmatic-Stress-Disorder - a syndrome I just invented-I-mean-identified and will be preparing a paper for presentation at the next Symposium. We're sad to see Jules leave the Blogosphere, and we wish him well in all his future endeavors.

Like The Duke said in that movie, a million lifetimes ago: "Fall back, fall back!"

We know that the current state of affairs in our great nation has many civilians up in arms and excited to join the military. For those of you who can't join, you can still lend a hand. Here are a few of the areas where we would like your assistance:

1. The next time you see any adults talking (or wearing a hat) during the playing of the National Anthem - KICK THEIR ASS.

2. When you witness, firsthand, someone burning the American Flag in protest - KICK THEIR ASS.

3. Regardless of the rank they held while they served, pay the highest amount of respect to all veterans. If you see anyone doing otherwise, quietly pull them aside and explain how these veterans fought for the very freedom they bask in every second. Enlighten them on the many sacrifices these veterans made to make this Nation great. Then hold them down while a disabled veteran KICKS THEIR ASS.

4. If you were never in the military, DO NOT pretend that you were. Wearing battle dress uniforms (BDUs) or Jungle Fatigues, telling others that you used to be "Special Forces", collecting GI Joe memorabilia, might have been okay when you were seven years old, now it will only make you look stupid and it will GET YOUR ASS KICKED.

5. Next time you come across an Air Force member, do not ask them, 'Do you fly a jet?' Not everyone in the Air Force is a pilot. Such ignorance DESERVES AN ASS-KICKING (women and children are exempt).

6. If you witness someone calling the Coast Guard 'non-military', inform them of their mistake - and the KICK THEIR ASS.

7. Next time Old Glory (the US flag) prances by during a parade, get on your damn feet and pay homage to her by placing your hand over your heart. Quietly thank the military member or veteran lucky enough to be carrying her - of course, failure to do either of those could EARN YOU A SEVERE ASS-KICKING.

8. 'Your mama wears Army boots' never made sense to me - stop saying it! If she did, she is most likely be a vet and can therefore KICK YOUR ASS!

9. 'Flyboy' (Air Force), 'Jarhead' (Marines), 'Grunt' (Army), 'Squid' (Navy), 'Puddle Jumpers' (Coast Guard), etc., are terms of endearment we use describing each other. Unless you are a service member or vet, you have not earned the right to use them. Using them could GET YOUR ASS KICKED!

10. Last, but not least, whether or not you become a member of the military, support our troops and their families. Every Thanksgiving and religious holiday that you enjoy with family and friends, please remember that there are literally thousands of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen far from home wishing they could be with their families. Thank God for our military and the sacrifices they make every day. Without them, our country would GET ITS ASS KICKED.

It's the Veteran, not the reporter, who has given us Freedom of the Press. It's the Veteran, not the poet, who has given us Freedom of Speech. It's the Veteran, not the community organizer, who gives us the Freedom to Demonstrate. It's the Military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.

AND ONE MORE THING:

If you ever see anyone singing the National Anthem in Spanish-KICK THEIR ASS.

ONE LAST THING:

I got this over the email machine and it said that if I didn't pass it on - get this - I deserve to GET MY ASS KICKED!

So I posted this, not because I didn't want to get my ass kicked BUT BECAUSE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU ARE MEMBERS OF TEAM STORMBRINGER AND YOU ARE VERY, VERY SPECIAL - I KNOW YOU WILL NOT BE OFFENDED AND ARE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.

I THANK YOU

WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! IN GOD WE TRUST!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Charter of Blog STORMBRINGER includes, amongst other things, to explore and celebrate all that is good and positive of our great Western Civilization, from it's early beginnings in Ancient Greece and Rome through the centuries to our modern era.

There is reason for this, beyond art for arts sake; it is tied directly to the very survival of our society as we know it.

Let us consider the circumstances of our present-day situation; the breakdown of all rules and norms, the social degradation and moral decay that is all around us, the shock and outrage visited upon us daily by the destructive forces that present themselves as agents of change - do I have to list them for you here? - and of course the clash of our civilized society against the forces of Barbarism represented by radical Fundamentalist Islam.

We must teach our unique Western Culture to our children, or we are doomed to lose it. We must defend our Western Culture by celebrating it, proudly proclaiming it for what it is: the greatest creation of Human Civilization, born in Ancient Greece and Israel, fought for at Marathon and Thermapylae, from whence sprung Democracy, Rule of Law, and Freedom of Thought.

Thermopylae: "Go tell the Spartans that here, in accordance to their laws, three hundred lie . . ."

The focus is on our shared Judeo-Christian heritage, and the principles ensconced in the Old and New Testaments, Aristotle's Theory of Happiness, Plato's Republic, the legacy of Cicero, Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution; and that the freedom of the individual citizen versus an oppressive government is the first value adopted and never abandoned.

Freedom of the individual from tyranny is the theme of the Bill of Rights; the first ten amendments to the Constitution, of course. And of those ten amendments, the one which guarantees all of the others is the Second Amendment.

In keeping with the philosophy "If you aren't a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem," STORMBRINGER presents:

PRINCIPLES FOR A STRONG WESTERN CULTURE

Culture: A way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols — modeled by its leaders and internalized by its members — and passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

Implied in this definition is the notion that Western Civilization was designed, built, and operated (and intended) to provide stability, freedom, and productive citizenry, and that the concepts of our culture applies to every single individual in the Western World.

The strength of a society’s culture could lie anywhere along a broad continuum, depending on the degree to which the attributes of that culture are embraced. Even though Culture itself is a somewhat intangible concept, it is possible to determine, based on observable attributes, whether a society tends toward one end of the continuum or the other.

Preserving and defending a Culture's heritage is a collective responsibility. No one in the society is exempt from this obligation.

The following are the Principles for a Strong Western Culture:

1. Everyone is personally responsible for the impact of their individual actions upon the health and welfare of Society - and ESPECIALLY their influence upon the younger generation.

2. Leaders demonstrate commitment to the defense and survival of our Western Civilization.

3. Trust permeates the Rule of Law; Trust, but Verify.

4. Good, Sound Judgment and Decision-making is lauded and admired, not villified.

The Rape of the Sabine Women occurred in the early history of Rome, shortly after its foundation by Romulus and his mostly male followers. Seeking wives in order to found families, Romulus devised a festival of Neptune Equester and proclaimed the festival amongst Rome's neighbors. At the height of the festival Romulus gave a signal, at which the Romans grabbed the Sabine women and fought off the Sabine men. The indignant abductees were implored by Romulus to accept their new Roman husbands.

Romulus offered them free choice and promised civic and property rights to women. According to Livy he spoke to them each in person, "and pointed out to them that it was all owing to the pride of their parents in denying the right of intermarriage to their neighbors. They would live in honorable wedlock, and share all their property and civil rights, and — dearest of all to human nature — would be the mothers of free men."

Outraged at the occurrence, the king of the Caeninenses entered upon Roman territory with his army. Romulus and the Romans met the Caeninenses in battle, killed their king, and routed their army. Romulus subsequently attacked Caenina and took it at the first assault. Returning to Rome, Romulus dedicated a temple to Jupiter Feretrius (according to Livy, the first temple dedicated in Rome) and offered the spoils of the enemy king as spolia opima. According to the Fasti Triumphales, Romulus celebrated a triumph over the Caeninenses on 1 March 752 BC.

At the same time, the army of the Antemnates made an incursion into Roman territory. The Romans retaliated, and the Antemnates were defeated in battle and their town conquered. According to the Fasti Triumphales, Romulus celebrated a second triumph in 752 BC over the Antemnates.

The Crustumini also commenced hostilities, but their town too was captured by the Romans.

Roman colonies were subsequently sent to Antemnae and Crustumerium by Romulus, and many citizens of those towns also migrated to Rome (particularly the families of the captured women).

The Sabines also went to war with the Romans, led by their king Titus Tatius. When Tatius attacked Rome, he almost succeeded in capturing the city because of the treason of Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, governor of the citadel on the Capitoline Hill. She opened the city gates for the Sabines in return for 'what they bore on their arms.' She believed that she would receive their golden bracelets. Instead, the Sabines crushed her to death with their shields, and she was thrown from the rock which since bore her name, the Tarpeian Rock.

The Roman forces attacked the Sabines, who were now in possession of the citadel. The Roman advance was led by Hostus Hostilius, and the Sabine front by Mettus Curtius. When the former fell, the Roman line gave way, and they retreated to the gate of the Palatium. There Romulus gathered his men and, promising to build a temple to Jupiter Stator on that site, led the Romans back to battle.

The battle continued. Mettus Curtius was unhorsed and fled the battle, and the Romans gained the upper hand.

At that point the women intervened in the battle to reconcile the warring parties:

They went boldly into the midst of the flying missiles . . . running across the space between the two armies they tried to stop any further fighting and calm the excited passions by appealing to their fathers in the one army and their husbands in the other . . . "If," they cried, "you are weary of these ties of kindred, these marriage-bonds, then turn your anger upon us; it is we who are the cause of the war, it is we who have wounded and slain our husbands and fathers. Better for us to perish rather than live without one or the other of you, as widows or as orphans."

Following the reconciliation, the Sabines agreed to form one nation with the Romans and the Sabine king, Titus Tatius, jointly ruled Rome with Romulus until Tatius' death five years later.

Jacques-Louis David painted the other end of the story, when the women intervene to reconcile the warring parties. The Intervention of the Sabine Women was completed in 1799. It is in the Louvre Museum.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's Kim Jong Il made his elusive youngest son a four-star general in a major promotion seen Tuesday as confirmation that he is slated to become the country's next leader.

This is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea state media's first mention of Kim Jong Un, who has remained so well hidden from the outside world that up until now not even his face or exact age can be confirmed. He is believed to have been schooled and educated at Kim Il Sung Military University in Pyongyang

Monday, September 27, 2010

A panel of national security experts who worked under Republican and Democratic presidents is urging the Obama administration to abandon its stance that Islam is not linked to terrorism, arguing that radical Muslims are using Islamic law to subvert the United States. In a report set for release today, the panel states that "it is vital to the national security of the United States, and to Western civilization at large, that we do what we can to empower Islam's authentic moderates and reformers."

The study group, sponsored by the conservative-oriented Center for Security Policy, says in its report that proponents of advancing Islamic law mark the "crucial fault line" in Islam's internal divisions separating truly moderate Muslims, like the late Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, from the large portion of the world's 1 billion Muslims who advocate imposing what they call Shariah law throughout the world. Mr. Wahid, who died in December, is a widely respected Muslim visionary who promoted pluralism in Indonesia, which has the world's largest population of Muslims.

According to the report, proponents of Shariah are "Muslim supremacists" waging "civilization jihad" along with the Islamist terrorists engaged in violent jihad, like al-Qaida. The 19-member study group was led by retired Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence in the George W. Bush administration, and retired Army Lt. Gen. Harry E. Soyster, Defense Intelligence Agency director from 1988 to 1991. Included in the team of former defense, law enforcement and intelligence officials were Clinton administration CIA Director R. James Woolsey and Andrew C. McCarthy, former assistant U.S. attorney in New York, a career counterterrorism prosecutor during the Clinton administration. Frank Gaffney, director of the Center for Security Policy, said the Obama administration's policy is based on an incorrect assumption.

L-R LTG Boykin, LTG Soyster, R. James Woolsey, Andrew McCarthy

The Team B report seeks to expose flaws in anti-terror programs, including the policy of not referring to al-Qaida and similar groups as "Islamist" to avoid offending Muslims, he said. "What if it turns out that some of the people the Obama administration has been embracing are actually promoting the same totalitarian ideology and seditious agenda as al-Qaida, only they're doing it from White House Iftar dinners?" said Mr. Gaffney, referring to the daily meal eaten by Muslims to break their fast during Ramadan.

The group of experts was modeled after the official CIA Team B, whose 1976 contrary analysis said U.S. intelligence assessments had underestimated Soviet nuclear forces. That Team B report led to the military buildup under the Reagan administration. John Brennan, deputy White House national security adviser for counterterrorism, told The Washington Times in June that he disagrees that "there is an Islamic dimension to terrorism."

The administration's policy of not using the word Islam and its derivatives to describe today's fundamentalist terrorists is aimed at "not according these individuals any religious legitimacy," he said. A White House spokesman could not be reached for comment on the report or the administration's policy on political Islam.

Mr. Gaffney said the report concludes that U.S. government programs aimed at reaching out to Muslim groups that promote Shariah law "is not political correctness, it's submission." The administration's failure to understand the Islamist nature of the terrorist threat is "inviting more violent jihad against this country," Mr. Gaffney said.

The report calls for a campaign against radical Islamists following the model used against communist ideology and activities during the Cold War, including infiltrating foreign-supported jihad groups by the FBI and other aggressive security measures. "Today, the United States faces what is, if anything, an even more insidious ideological threat: the totalitarian socio-political doctrine that Islam calls Shariah," the report says. "Though it certainly has spiritual elements, it would be a mistake to think of Shariah as a 'religious' code in the Western sense because it seeks to regulate all manner of behavior in the secular sphere — economic, social, military, legal, and political."

The Team B report calls for developing a "counter-strategy" to Islamist ideology, but notes that understanding the nature of the enemy is a critical first step. "That cannot be done by following the failed strategy of fictionalizing the state of Islam in the vain hope that reality will, at some point, catch up to the benign fable," the report says. "Empowering the condign elements of Islam requires a candid assessment, which acknowledges the strength of Shariah — just as defeat of 20th century totalitarian ideologies required an acknowledgment of, and respect for, their malevolent capabilities."

The Shariah system is "totalitarian" and incompatible with the U.S. Constitution's guarantees of democratic lawmaking, freedom of conscience, individual liberty and freedom of expression, including the right to analyze and criticize Shariah law, the report states. The report cites the 1991 document from the Muslim Brotherhood in North America describing a covert process of Islamic "settlement" in the United States.

The plan is to carry out a "grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated," the document stated. The Egyptian-origin Muslim Brotherhood is the most important entity promoting Islamic supremacism, the report says.

Republican and Democratic administrations failed to understand the ideological nature of the terrorist enemy, the report says, including its ultimate goal of reinstating a totalitarian Islamic caliphate with Shariah imposed globally.

Strange statements are coming out of Cuba these days. Fidel Castro, in the course of a five-hour interview in late August, reportedly told Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic and Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations that “the Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.”

Once that statement hit the headlines, Castro backtracked. Dressed in military uniform for the first time in four years (which we suspect was his way of signaling that he was not abandoning the revolution), he delivered a rare, 35-minute speech Sept. 3 to students at the University of Havana. In addition to spending several minutes on STRATFOR’s Iran analysis, Castro addressed his earlier statement on the Cuban model, saying he was “accurately quoted but misinterpreted” and suggesting that the economic model doesn’t work anymore but that the revolution lives on.

Sustaining the Revolution

There is little hiding the fact that Cuba’s socialist economy has run out of steam. The more interesting question is whether the Cuban leader is prepared to acknowledge this fact and what he is prepared to do about it. Castro wants his revolution to outlive him. To do so, he must maintain a balance between power and wealth. For decades, his method of maintaining power has been to monopolize the island’s sources of wealth.

But that control has come at a cost: For the revolution to survive — and maintain both a large security apparatus and an expensive and inefficient social welfare system — it must have sufficient private investment that the state can control . . .

Many Cubans, including Castro, blame the island’s economic turmoil on the U.S. embargo, a politically charged vestige of the Cold War days when Cuba, under Soviet patronage, actually posed a clear and present danger to the United States. There is a great irony built into this complaint. Castro’s revolution was built on the foundation that trade with the imperialists was responsible for Cuba’s economic turmoil. Now, it is the supposed lack of such trade that is paralyzing the Cuban economy. History can be glossed over at politically opportune times, but it cannot so easily be forgotten.

The Cuban-Venezuelan Relationship

Cuba and Venezuela face very similar geographic constraints. Both are relatively small countries with long Caribbean coastlines and primarily resource-extractive economies. While Venezuela’s mountainous and jungle-covered borderlands to the south largely deny the country any meaningful economic integration with its neighbors, Cuba sits in a sea of small economies similar to its own. As a result, neither country has good options in its immediate neighborhood for meaningful economic integration save for the dominant Atlantic power, i.e., the United States. In dealing with the United States, Cuba and Venezuela basically have two options: either align with the United States or seek out an alliance with a more powerful, external adversary to the United States.

Both countries have swung between these two extremes. Prior to the 1959 revolution, the United States dominated Cuba politically and economically, and although relations between the two countries began to deteriorate shortly thereafter, there were still notable attempts to cooperate until Soviet subsidies took hold and episodes like the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco sunk the relationship. Likewise, until the 2002 coup attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela had long maintained a close, mutually beneficial relationship with the United States. With U.S. urging, Venezuela flooded the markets with oil and busted the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, helping bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. That energy cooperation continued with the U.S. sale of Citgo in the 1990s to Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA, a deal designed to hardwire Venezuela into the U.S. energy markets. Venezuela obtained a guaranteed market for its low-grade crude, which it couldn’t sell to other countries, while the United States acquired an energy source close to home.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

La Grande Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1814) depicts an odalisque - a female slave or concubine in a harem - a popular subject throughout the centuries. The painting was commissioned by Napoleon's sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples, and finished in 1814.

The work is considered a significant break from Neo-classicism; a shift toward exotic Romanticism. Grande Odalisque attracted wide criticism when it was first shown. This eclectic mix of styles, combining classical form with Romantic themes, prompted harsh criticism when it was first shown in 1814. Critics viewed Ingres as a rebel against the contemporary style of form and content. When the painting was first shown in the Salon of 1819, one critic remarked that the work had "neither bones nor muscle, neither blood, nor life, nor relief, indeed nothing that constitutes imitation". This echoed the general view that Ingres had disregarded anatomical realism. Ingres instead favored long lines to convey curvature and sensuality, as well as abundant, even light to tone down the volume.

Grande Odalisque has been especially noted for the elongated proportions and lack of anatomical realism.

Stemming from the initial criticism the painting received, the figure in Grande Odalisque is thought to be drawn with "two or three vertebrae too many." Critics at the time believed the elongations to be errors on the part of Ingres, but recent studies show the elongations to have been deliberate distortions. Measurements taken on the proportions of real women showed that Ingres's figure was drawn with a curvature of the spine and rotation of the pelvis impossible to replicate. It also showed the left arm of the odalisque is shorter than the right. The study concluded that the figure was longer by five instead of two or three vertebrae and that the excess affected the lengths of the pelvis and lower back instead of merely the lumbar region.

Given how the duty of concubines were merely to satisfy the carnal pleasures of the sultan, this elongation of her pelvic area may have been a symbolic distortion by Ingres. While this may represent sensuous feminine beauty, her gaze, on the other hand, has been said to reflect a complex psychological make-up or betray no feeling. In addition, the distance between her gaze and her pelvic region may be a physical representation of the depth of thought and complex emotions of a woman's thoughts and feelings

Note: The following appeared in the May 13 issue of The Ozarks Sentinal and is purported to be written by State Representative Nita Jane Ayres.

Nita Jane Ayres has agreed to write a follow-up editorial which will appear in our print edition on June 24. The follow-up will take a close look at the state's legislation and how it deals with illegal immigrants.

We're down to one week to go in the legislative session and bills are moving through the process at a remarkable pace. My goal is to keep you updated on all the pieces of legislation that may be of interest to you and your family. In the coming weeks, I hope to do that. However, this week I want to talk about an issue that Missouri has already addressed in a variety of ways the issue of illegal immigration. I'm sure you've seen the headlines about Arizona's new law aimed at dealing with those who enter our country illegally. It has been called the strictest immigration law in generations. While Missouri hasn't gone to the same lengths as Arizona, our state has made significant policy changes that effectively deal with illegal immigrants who enter our state. Because of those changes, Missouri is ahead of the game when compared to many other states that are now dealing with this issue.

In 2007, the Missouri General Assembly approved HJR 7 to place on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment designating English as the official language of Missouri. Voters then went to the polls and approved the measure with nearly 90 percent voting in favor. With that, English became the official language for all governmental proceedings in Missouri. It also means no individual has the right to demand government services in a language other than English. A common language is the cornerstone of a cohesive and united state and country. Ensuring that English is our official language is simply common sense.

Another measure that directly addresses the issue of illegal immigration was passed in 2008. HB 1549 requires our Highway Patrol and other law enforcement officials to verify the immigration status of any person arrested, and inform federal authorities if the person is found to be here illegally. It also allows Missouri law enforcement officers to receive training to enforce federal immigration laws. Furthermore, the bill makes it clear that illegal immigrants will not have access to taxpayer benefits such as food stamps and health care through MO HealthNet. With the passage of this legislation, Missouri sent a clear message that illegal immigrants are not welcome in our state, and that they are certainly not welcome to receive public benefits at the cost of Missouri taxpayers.

2009 saw another significant piece of legislation passed dealing with illegal immigration. HB 390 ensures Missouri's public institutions of higher education do not award financial aid to individuals who are here illegally. The law also requires all postsecondary institutions of higher education to annually certify to the Missouri Department of Higher Education that they have not knowingly awarded financial aid to students who are unlawfully present in the United States. The bill represents another common sense approach to the issue as it ensures taxpayer dollars are not used to subsidize the education of someone who is in our country illegally.

So while Arizona has made national news for its new law, it's important to remember Missouri has been proactive in addressing this growing problem. The laws we have on the books help ensure the rights and benefits of Missourians are preserved for actual Missouri citizens. It's also important to remember that this country has always opened its arms to immigrants, which is why our nation is often referred to as the great melting pot. Immigrants from all parts of the world have helped make our country what it is today. However, our doors are not open to those who try to live in our country illegally. I believe Missouri's laws make that very clear and give our law enforcement officials the authority they need to deal with the problem.

Thanks again for allowing me to represent you in the state capitol. Feel free to contact me with your concerns, suggestions and ideas. My office phone is 573-751-2492. Email address: nitajane.ayres@house.mo.gov Or write to: State Representative Nita Jane Ayres, House Post Office, State Capitol, Room 233-A, Jefferson City, MO 65101.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Why does nobody pay any attention to what Hillary is doing? She's the Secretary of State; a preacher with a ministry of 50 people down in Florida gets more attention whether or not he burns a Koran, like it matters?

Hillary seems to be getting one hell of a pass by the press.

She basically hasn't done anything of notice or merit IN EITHER DIRECTION for either political party since she ran for presidential election. Smells funny to me.

Michelle Obama gets 10 pages here and three pages there and she has no official role but the primarily leftist press doesn't trumpet any Hillary achievements because she doesn't have any notable ones I can recall and the right wing press doesn't attack her for any decisions or policies to amount to anything, because she DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE ANY.

I smell a lawyer looking to run for president masquerading as Secretary of State.

Barack Hussein Obama won't release enough records to enlist in the US Army as an E-1 and Hillary Clinton won't do the slightest thing that might attract the least bit of attention to herself from her political enemies.

She's given a couple of speeches with basically no content; she could be called on from either camp, especially at places like UNICEF parties; she tippy-toes around talking to foreign leaders about nothing of consequence. Basically she's doing her best to look like she has no opinions . . .

Any readers out there who can give me firm examples of where she's stood up for much of anything at all of SIGNIFICANCE on principle since she became Secretary of State, FEEL FREE.

As Secretary of State she has had absolutely ZERO noticeable/notable influence on ANYBODY'S foreign policy or actions.

Interesting, isn't it?

Sarkozy's wife gets more press than HC and she's just an "executive toy" as far as politics go.

MEANWHILE . . .

Is Bill Clinton's CGI the New U.N.?

Has Bill Clinton gotten bigger than the United Nations? The Clinton Global Initiative may not have a standing army, but the organization is becoming known for tackling the thorny problems the U.N. can't handle. CGI has nabbed top-tier speakers from Barack Obama to Bill Gates for its New York summit this week—happening right down the street from the U.N.'s General Assembly meeting. The U.N. may be the terrain of "nerdy policy people," international health expert Paul Farmer tells Olopade, but "what happens at CGI is the nitty-gritty of deal making."

Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British for spying. A graduate of Yale University, Hale joined a Connecticut regiment in 1775 and served in the successful siege of British-occupied Boston. In the summer of 1776, he crossed behind British lines on Long Island in civilian clothes to spy on the British. While returning with the intelligence information, British soldiers captured Hale near the American lines and charged him with espionage. Taken to New York, he was hanged without trial the next day.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

September brings fall in the Northern Hemisphere - the astronomical start of the fall season is marked by the positions of Earth and the sun - the last day of summer and the first day of fall.

The precise moment and date when fall arrives for the northern hemisphere:

September 22, 2010 at 11:09 pm EDT

This is known as the September Equinox.

On the Equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. This is true for both the fall and spring Equinoxes.

On two days of the year you can find the exact cardinal directions of East and West by using the sun. The ancients did this when they set up their calendars at Stonehenge and the Mayan pyramid, among others.

For a true Celt, the only fitting way to celebrate the Fall Equinox . . . is to offer a Human Sacrifice . . . S.L.

This is a heads up regarding Progressive Auto Insurance. You know who they are - they’re the ones with the clever television ads featuring the perky redhead actress all dressed in white.

What you might not know is that the chairman of Progressive is Peter Lewis, one of the largest funders of the left in America . He’s your typical rich spoiled kid who took over the company from his father and apparently feels “guilty” for his success and now dedicates himself to making it impossible for anyone else to become wealthy.

Between 2001 and 2003, Lewis funneled $15 million to the ACLU, the group most responsible for destroying what’s left of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. Indeed, Lewis is himself a ACLU member. One of the ACLU projects he earmarked his funds for was an effort to sue school districts who have drug testing policies. In other words, this idiot wants teachers to be able to use drugs without fear of exposure. I wonder what he would think if all his own employees came to work drugged out every day.

Lewis also gave $12.5 million to MoveOn.org and American Coming Together, two key components of the socialist left. The former group is perhaps the main group used by the Obama forces to organize their activists; the latter group is a 527 political action group that essentially served as a front for the SEIU union thugs who ran ACORN. His funding for these groups was conditional on matching contributions from George Soros, the international socialist who finances much of the Obama political network.

It’s disturbing that Lewis made a fortune as a result of capitalism but now finances a progressive movement that threatens to destroy the free enterprise system. He reminds me somewhat of Armand Hammer, the former head of Occidental Petroleum who did business with Joseph Stalin and become his good friend, around the same time Stalin was executing businessmen all over the USSR.

This company is targeting television shows watched by conservatives such as Fox News. Peter Lewis is making a fortune off of conservative Americans so that he can destroy our country. He’s banking on no one finding out who he is. I think it’s time we expose this clown.

Monday, September 20, 2010

The great British actor SIR MICHAEL CAINE was an infantryman in the British Army during the Korean War. He is still haunted by his experiences in the Korean War - insisting his life totally changed on the day he narrowly escaped death on the battlefield.

Michael Caine was called up for national service in the British Army when he was aged 18 and was deployed to South Korea to help in the aftermath of the North Korean invasion.

I once heard Caine relating to a flashback to Korea, as how he could smell his fear in the form of the stench of the Chinese hoards of infantry they could smell coming during an attack . . .

Michael Caine on his service in Korea:

"Whenever I killed someone there was no guilt, no remorse - it didn't feel real. It was during the Korean War and I was just trying to stay alive. It was self-defense. It was always done at night and we never had any idea who we had killed. I didn't even think about it - we had machine guns and we just did it. I never did anything close up or hand-to-hand. It didn't give me nightmares, because the Army brutalizes you. It was like the World War I trenches - half a mile apart - and we were just firing backwards and forwards, so we never knew who any of our victims were as individuals. You never saw the whites of a man's eyes when you killed him."

Caine served in the Royal Fusiliers, admits he came close to losing his life during the conflict.

"I was nearly killed. There were four of us on patrol in a valley in the middle of the rice paddies. The Chinese were closing in on us and the officer said, 'Let's run towards their line - they won't expect it because they'll be expecting us to run away towards our lines.' So we did that and we ended up going right around them. They couldn't find us because they were looking in the wrong place and we got away. But we'd faced that moment that we thought was the end.

"That night we went back to our bunkers and celebrated with a beer. We were just happy to be alive . . . I faced a moment when I knew I was going to die and I didn't run, I wasn't a coward, and it affected me deeply. I was at peace with myself and that's guided my life, not just in terms of whether someone's going to kill me, but in everything."

How about those truly heroic Michael Caine films? This first one is what earned him his knighthood:

The fantastic Kipling tale - "Man Who Would Be King" -

Then there was Michael Caine's brilliant interpretation of Jack Higgins' anti-hero Fallschirmjäger commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Steiner in the World War II adventure film The Eagle has Landed:

. . . and how can anyone forget Caine's piece de resistance "Blame it on Rio":

Synopsis: LOTS of gratuitous nudity - including a topless teenage Demi Moore . . . Michael proves once more he's a real stud this time by making it with his buddy's daughter Michelle Johnson - a bird about a third his age -(she's WAY hotter than the young Demi).

"I have no problem being called "Fascist". No red blooded woman EVER has had a fantasy about being ravished by a man dressed as a "Liberal". It's the uniform every time!" - P. J. O'Rourke